Houston, PA
Houston wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Houston at the 30th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 604 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Houston's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 32nd percentile nationally.
Houston's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Houston's buildings (92.4%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Houston against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Houston's 30th national percentile and its 39th percentile inside Pennsylvania, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Houston ranks 21,947 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,793 by building count (1 is largest). Within Pennsylvania alone, it ranks 1,216 of 1,991 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Pennsylvania on its state page.
Houston and the insurance market
At the 30th national percentile, Houston rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Houston
Because 92.4% of Houston's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Houston's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 604 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Houston. The exposure-zones guide covers what Houston's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.